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The Seven Rites of Izanami
The Keepers of Izanami are special to Lyra as peerless lone agents, serving alongside other Lyrans and members of other Noble Houses often only when they see fit or with great coercion. To become an Izanami is to complete further steps beyond the other ranks of Keeper, declaring a much deeper allegiance to the Empire and to Lyra, and showing a skill and prowess above those they’ve fought beside. Those seeking the path of Izanami must pass through the Seven Rites, a single failure representing denial for life in almost all cases. Each Rite possesses two “steps,” one for non-psychics, and an additional or modified step for psychics. The Rite of Thunder The First Step An initiate meditates in a large room surrounded by drums of all sizes. Upon these drums, the Cadences of War are played for seven days and seven nights until the initiate can themselves recite or play each of them. The Cadences are the rhythm of battle, and the backbone of an Keeper of Izanami’s fighting, regardless of weapon. A trained Izanami will always internalize the Cadences during combat, and especially skilled students may learn to overlap them in polyrhythm. For more information, see The Cadences of War. The Second Step (For Psychics) A psychic must do as above, but must further learn how their psychic abilities can be interwoven with other tools of combat, depending on their school of psychic ability. As indicated above, especially skilled students may learn to internalize two Cadences at once, and this can be especially useful when combining psychic powers and weapons in the same moment of combat. The Rite of Lightning: The First Step With the Cadences of War learned beyond any other form of Keeper’s ability, an initiate must practice with their weapon of choice as they further internalize the Cadences. Every fighting style available to both the Keepers, and the few reserved exclusively for the path of Izanami, must be memorized and displayed before a council of Keeper elders. In addition, each initiate is required to create or improvise a fighting style of their own that uses one of the existing Cadences of War. This is a Keeper of Izanami’s Soul Dance, and must be practiced and perfected by them throughout their lifetime. For more information, see The Soul Dance. The Second Step (For Psychics) A psychic again does as above, but must learn additional styles that incorporate psychic powers into their fighting and the rare few that exclusively use psychic abilities. A psychic must also craft two Soul Dances, one using their weapon of choice, intermingled with psychic powers if they wish, and one using exclusively psychic abilities. The Rite of Rage The First Step An initiate must learn not only to feel and understand their emotions, but also to control them and fuel their fighting with them. The trainee is taken to the surface of Orpheus and made to stand, wearing nothing more than a pressure mask, for as long as they can weather the storms and flesh-eating microbes. Often, this test is very brief, and many fail at this stage out of fear and aversion to the pain. Rare initiates, however, try to stay as long as they can, and sometimes must be pulled back to safety by the teachers that accompany them before they stray too close to death. The Second Step (For Psychics) Psychics must do as above, but certain disciplines are required to spend a minimum duration twice as long as non-psychics, such as biopsions, who are more easily able to cope with the dangers of Orpheus’ surface. The Rite of Silence The First Step While the focus of the Rite of Rage is on feeling and withstanding the assaults of emotion and suffering Keepers or any fighter can experience, the Rite of Silence cares only for control, discipline, and humility. A trainee meditates within their home and may not leave, moving only as necessary for survival and eating only what food is provided to them. As they meditate, each trainee must compose a melody in absolute silence within their mind, a song to accompany one of the Cadences of War. This process can be frustrating and almost maddening, and letting loose one’s anger or failing to compose the melody are both frequent causes of failing to reach the rank of Izanami for trainees. The Second Step (For Psychics) Psychics must learn two additional things as well as the above. First, they must learn to temper and discipline their use of psychic powers so as not to use them as an outlet for uncontrolled emotions. Second, they must learn humility, seeing any foe as an equal whether they are psychic or not, and understanding that being psychic does not make them special or exceptional compared to those who are not. The Rite of Death The First Step Much less intimidating than it sounds, the Rite of Death is a Rite of study. Each initiate must pour over texts describing the deaths of both warriors and non-warriors, learning how they died and seeking out the ways in which the death may have been avoided. The purpose of this is two-fold. The first purpose is to teach peace with death, that a Keeper of Izanami is neither afraid to cause death nor to die themselves. The second purpose is to learn from the past, seeing the mistakes that have been made learning to avoid them. A document must be produced, handwritten, describing what each initiate learned during this time of study, and given to a council of Keeper elders for review. The Second Step (For Psychics) Those with psychic abilities, particularly biopsions, sometimes develop a belief that they are immune to death or less likely to experience it. During the Rite of Death, this belief must be utterly destroyed, or a psychic will find themselves removed from the program upon examination by an approved Telepath. Death is to be accepted and embraced, not feared or overcome. The Rite of Masks The First Step A Keeper of Izanami must craft a new mask, separate form their traditional Lyran mask, called the Face of Mourning. Those who follow the path of Izanami are not to enjoy battle nor revel in it, but see it as a necessary act that must be undertaken with a fundamental sadness. This sadness must not compromise a Keeper of Izanami, but rather fuel them, as all their other emotions, propelling them to complete their purpose. During battle, emotions are not externalized, but channelled into the combat, and the Mask is a reminder of this, knowing that your foe cannot see your emotion even if you were to show it. Once the Face of Mourning is removed, emotions may be let loose, for it is wrong to always hide one’s feelings. The Second Step (For Psychics) For the Rite of Masks there technically is no Second Step for psychics, however some consider the application of psychic energies to the Face of Mourning during its creation to be an unofficial “Second Step.” The Rite of Names The Final Step A Keeper of Izanami must often move in secret. At times, their work may move them against other Houses or require them to keep information hidden. Thus, each Keeper of Izanami must choose a new name, a single word, to represent themselves. This name must be chosen carefully, through deep and rigorous self-study, and if the initiate has any doubt in the name they choose it is grounds for failure. The name must wholly embody who the Keeper is and what they wish to accomplish. Whatever aspect of themselves they choose to shape the name, it must be deeply important to them and they must be unwaveringly accepting of that part of themselves. A Keeper of Izanami may still use their birth name, or whatever other name they call their own, but they must always remember the name they chose during the final rite and the promise it represents - that a Keeper of Izanami is devoted to their cause above all else, be it friends, family, corporations, or other Noble Houses. Rhythms of Battle The Cadences of War The Cadences of War are ancient Lyran rhythms, some dating back to during or before the Scream, that represent the movements of combat and battle. The fundamental theory behind the Cadences is that all forms of battle have underlying, inherent patterns to them that naturally arise from the basic biological clock of human beings. Consciously or subconsciously, any human engaged in battle will follow a rhythm in their actions and movements, and these can be ascribed to various patterns, the Cadences of War. Some Cadences sound very similar to musical patterns or rhythms to the average listener. Others are so complex or uneven in their long, shifting patterns that an untrained listener might perceive them only as random and disconnected. Additionally, the best and longest trained users of the Cadences are able to combine them internally, understanding and following two rhythms side by side, simultaneously, in a way that some minds simply would not be able to comprehend. Most Cadences are openly known in Lyra or other Houses, with a few rare exceptions, and any Keeper may learn them, but Keepers of Izanami are required to memorize them all. The Cadences of War are not without their weaknesses, however. As patterns and rhythms, some of which date back to before modern weaponry, several are considered barely viable in the present day, though there are still some that attempt to find ways to revive their use. Additionally, the rigidity of the underlying patterns means some who use them struggle to improvise or adapt during battle against opponents who use tricky or unusual tactics. While many styles can be overlaid onto the same rhythm, they share a fundamental DNA, and being able to quickly move from one rhythm to another is difficult but key to the mastery of the Cadences of War. The Soul Dance Unlike the Cadences of War, which can be learned by any Keeper or even those outside Lyra who desire to learn them and are devoted enough, the Soul Dance is exclusively bound to the Rites of a Keeper of Izanami. Creating a Soul Dance outside of the Rites or the ways of the Izanami is deeply frowned upon and considered highly disrespectful to both the Keepers and Lyra, and any who later seek to join the Keepers of Izanami will be instantly revoked should they have attempted or succeeded in crafting a Soul Dance beforehand. The concept of the Soul Dance is relatively simple. An initiate of the Keepers of Izanami selects one of the Cadences of War, often choosing it based on some personal attachment or its usefulness for their particular choice of weaponry. To that Cadence, the initiate then crafts a new fighting style, either derived from an old one or something wholly new, and practices it for performance in front of a council of Keeper elders. Alternatively, the Soul Dance may be improvised, but the technique of improvisation must then be practiced and the Dance remembered perfectly by the Izanami initiate after its first display before the elders. The Soul Dance is a form of combat that most embodies an individual Keeper of Izanami. Their heart, their thoughts, and their soul are all woven together in the display, and an initiate must readily be able to answer why they chose the patterns and movements they incorporated. The Soul Dance is to remain with a Keeper of Izanami until death, and any changes to it must be shown again before a council of Keeper elders with reasoning given. The soul and the heart may change, as should the Dance, but why it changes is also deeply important. The Face of Mourning Masks are important to Lyran culture, speaking deeply of who an individual is and how they wish to represent themselves to the world. While the Face of Mourning is still a deeply personal representation of self, it also serves another purpose. It is a reminder. Lyrans rarely enjoy war or battle, preferring avenues of peace and diplomacy. However, that does not mean they are unaware of the fact that it is sometimes necessary. The Face of Mourning is a symbol of this. A Keeper of Izanami should never see battle or war as a positive thing, nor relish in the thought of causing death. They are to always mourn those they kill, but equally be at peace with their own death should it come, knowing that Lyra will mourn them if it does. The Mask of Mourning is a manifestation of this philosophy. In addition, emotions are welcome in battle for a Keeper, but how they are used and channelled is deeply important, lest they become distractions. The Face of Mourning is thus also a reminder that emotions should not be externalized during battle, but funnelled into the Keeper’s cause and fighting. During the War Against the Artificials, many Keepers fought more viciously because of the denunciation of Synths and Cygnus as non-humans. Mourning is reserved for humans and those who may pass into the After, and while some retained their training, others became much more dangerous and deadly to their enemies. Keepers still debate whether the reminders of the Face of Mourning should have been continued for the members of Cygnus, or if it was right to deny them that respect. Category:House Lyra